UFO ROUNDUP

Volume 10
Number 19
May 11, 2005

Editor: Joseph Trainor

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CYLINDER-SHAPED UFO SEEN IN IRELAND

On Sunday, April 10, 2005, at 10:30 p.m., Karl
Reynolds was driving through Ranelagh, a suburb of Dublin,
the capital of Ireland, when they spotted an unusual
object approaching from the northwest.

"I was driving into town to meet my Polish girlfriend
for coffee," Karl reported, "when I noticed in the corner
of my eye a blue-and-red flashing light. I looked to my
left and, to my amazement, there was a large, chrome,
cylinder-shaped object with lights spiraling around the
circumference. It was stationary over a photo developing
shop. (Later I thought they must have stopped on their
intergalactic journey for a one-hour photo--K.R.) The
object quickly accelerated away to the south, increasing
in altitude. It was out of sight in what seemed like only
five seconds."

Karl estimated that the UFO was "about 100 feet (30
meters) in the air when I first saw it. It accelerated at
supersonic speed." (Email Form Report)

THREE ORANGE UFOs SIGHTED IN FLORIDA

On Saturday, April 29, 2005, at 9:05 p.m., Ida B. was
at her home in Jupiter, Florida (population 39,328) when
she spotted some strange lights in the sky.

"At approximately 9 p.m., I was out on the balcony,
on the phone, when I noticed three bright orange lights,
very visible to the eye, going towards the sky at high
speed. At one point, they stopped in mid-air and changed
to white lights. Then the three lights disappeared, and
it became just one light. And this one disappeared about
ten minutes later."

"At the time of the sighting, it was a triangular
shape (arrangement) of lights just before disappearing.
It was also witnessed by one other observer than myself.
Definitely the strangest thing I have ever experienced.
Almost like a fire in the sky. That's the only color I
can describe. No sound whatever was heard during this
time."

Ida estimated that the UFOs were "5,000 or more feet
(1,500 meters) high. Not sure of speed but initially slow
and then fast and then no speed at all. It just hovered.
I checked the TV but heard nothing" about the sighting.

Jupiter, Fla. is on Route 811 approximately 11 miles
(19 kilometers) north of Palm Beach. The community is
also the home of actor Burt Reynolds. (Email Form Report)

TWO UFOs SPOTTED OVER GRAND MARSH, WISCONSIN

On Saturday, April 29, 2005, at 9:40 p.m., eyewitness
R.M. was outdoors with his hunting dog in Grand Marsh,
Wisconsin when he spotted something unusual approaching
from the south.

"I was outside with our dog, facing the east," he
reported, "and I saw two lights traveling at the same
speed. They appeared from the south and were heading
north. I could not see any details at first."

"I called my wife out to come and see the lights. As
the lights got parallel to us on the horizon, we could see
that they were connected by a large, dark, cylinder-like
object."

"We could only make out that the lights were
connected by a dark object. The lights were somewhat
brighter than the stars, which is what caused me to notice
them. The lights did not blink and were a solid white
color. There was absolutely no sound from these objects."

"The object didn't change speed, direction or height.
The lights were probably higher than most passenger jets
travel (upwards of 38,000 feet or 11,400 meters--J.T.),
but took about one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half minutes to
cross the entire sky." (Email Form Report)

LIZZIE BORDEN HOUSE TO UNDERGO RESTORATION

"Talk about reconstructing a crime scene."

"The city landmark known as the Lizzie Borden house"
in Fall River, Mass. (population 91,938) is on its way to
looking more like it did on the day in (August) 1892 when
Andrew J. Borden and Abbey Durfee Gray Borden were
murdered than it has in decades."

"When Rhode Island nursing home owner Donald Wood
bought the house--now a bed-and-breakfast and tourist
attraction--last year (2004), he said one of his first
priorities was to remove two structures added in the
1900s, which housed a print shop."

"That work began yesterday (Thursday, April 28, 2005)
as an excavator crunched its way through the ceiling beams
of one of the structures in the house's driveway, which
was built around 1950."

"One of the trickiest steps in the demolition was
separating the house from the" Leary Press building at 234
Second Street, "according to Billy Williams, a foreman
with E.W. Berman, the construction firm doing the
demolition work. The two structures were attached in
places."

"'We just had to cut it away from the house first,'
he said."

"Lee Ann Wilber, the house's manager, said that
particular step was nerve-wracking for her."

"'I was giving a tour in the house at the time, and
every time they hit it with the excavator, it shook,' she
said, 'I was almost waiting for my wall to fall down. But
I have faith in them.'"

"When the contractors are finished taking that
structure down, they'll start on another, larger one next
to the house, built around 1920, which was once the
storefront for Leary Press."

"Leary Press is still open but has moved to Stafford
Road" in Fall River.

"Wilber said when the renovations are complete, the
house will have a large parking lot and look more
historically accurate."

"In the place of the structure demolished yesterday
will go a replica of the barn that once stood in back of
the (Borden) house. While the original barn stood about
15 feet (4.5 meters) from the house, Wilber said the
replica will be located further to the back of the
property, to accomodate parking."

"The first floor of the new barn will contain the
house's gift shop, she said."

"The house itself will also be restored to look more
as it did the day of the Borden murders, Wilber said."

"Most significantly, she said, it will be painted to
resemble its appearance in the early 1890s. But there's
one problem with that goal--no one's sure what the house's
paint scheme was back then."

"'It was repainted a couple of months before the
murders, and it was only described as 'drab,'' Wilber
said."

"Wilber said she can't quite remember how much the
demolition and renovations will cost."

"'I don't want to think about it. It hurts,' she
said."

"To help pay for the work, the Lizzie Borden house
has been selling bottles of brick dust from its basement."

"Some customer--lucky or unlucky, depending on your
point of view--could end up purchasing a bottle with
ghosts from the house attached to it, she said. About 45
customers have bought the $5 souvenirs."

"The house's history with the Bordens began in 1872
when Andrew J. Borden, a wealthy Fall River businessman,
bought it in order to live closer to the city's downtown
district. Lizzie became the prime suspect when he and his
wife, Lizzie's stepmother, were murdered."

"Lizzie was acquitted in 1892, and she and her sister
Emma moved out of the house to a home in French Street.
Lizzie lived there until her death" in 1927.

"The Borden sisters sold the house in 1918, and it
has changed hands several times since then."

"Before Wood, it was owned by the McGinn family, who
bought it in 1940 and used it as a private home and base
for Leary Press. In 1996, they converted it to a bed-and-
breakfast." (See the Providence, R.I. Journal for April
29, 2005, "Lizzie Borden house owners take a whack at
restoration," pages D1 and D7.)

"BEWITCHED" STATUE CAUSES FUROR IN SALEM, MASS.

"A proposed statue of a TV witch who casts spells by
twitching her nose has some residents" of Salem, Mass.
(population 40,407) "wrinkling theirs at the thought of
what they say is further exploitation of the city's tragic
past."

"The 9-foot (2.7-meter) tall statue of 'Bewitched'
character Samantha Stevens (portrayed in the 1964-1972
series by actress Elizabeth Montgomery--J.T.) astride a
broom is planned near one of the busiest intersections in
a city where 20 people were sentenced to death during the
witch hysteria of 1692."

"'It's in horribly bad taste,' John Carr, a lifelong
resident, said of the statue. 'It is trivializing that
aspect of Salem's history.'"

"The statue will stand near the church where people
were falsely accused of witchcraft and the site of the
courthouse where they were condemned, Carr said."

"A massive bronze tribute to a 1960s TV show is
unwelcome, said longtime resident Meg Twohey."

"'Do we need more kitsch?' she said, 'We are giving
out public space for a TV group to make money. I don't
understand why we're doing it.'"

"Proponents say the statue is harmless fun in a place
that has long made money by playing off the witch
hysteria."

"Salem bills itself as the 'Witch City' and each
October hosts a Halloween party featuring all manner of
ghouls. The 'Haunted Happenings' festival, which draws
thousands of tourists, is monitored by police officers in
cruisers bearing witch logos."

"Thomas Doherty, a Salem resident since 1991 and TV
historian at Brandeis University, said it's hard to get
upset about the statue."

"'I think the city can sort of do both,' Doherty
said. 'It can remember the dark side of its heritage, but
can celebrate getting beyond it.'"

"The city accepted TV Land's offer of the statue
about two months ago, but made sure it was placed
appropriately, said Kate Sullivan, an aide to Mayor
Stanley Usovicz. It wasn't allowed near a memorial to the
victims or the home of the judge (Justice John Hathorne--
J.T.) who presided over the trials."

"The statue flap is the latest in a running local
battle over the image of Salem, a historic seaport"
northeast of Boston "with abundant Federal period
architecture and literary fame as the home of Nathaniel
Hawthorne." (See the Boston Herald for May 4, 2005, "No
magic fix to 'Bewitched' statue brewhaha," page 24, and
the Attleboro, Mass. Sun-Chronicle for May 4, 2005,
"'Bewitched' statue causes latest flap over Salem's
image," page A2.)

(Editor's Note: Nineteenth Century author Nathaniel
Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter and was a direct
descendant of Justice Hathorne.)

"The unidentified mummy, from the 30th Pharaonic
Dynasty, was enclosed in a wooden sarcophagus and buried
in sand at the bottom of a 20-foot (6-meter) shaft when it
was discovered recently by an Egyptian-led archaeological
team."

"'We have revealed what may be the most beautiful
mummy ever found in Egypt,' said Dr. Zahi Hawass, chief of
Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities."

"Dr. Hawass said experts will use CT scanning
technology within the next week to reveal details about
the ancient Egyptian's identity and how he had lived and
died."

"Afterward, the mummy will be displayed at Saqqara's
Museum of Imhotep, the famed architect who designed the
Stepped Pyramid--Egypt's oldest."

"The mummy, found two months ago (March 2005), was
covered from head to toe in burial cloth painted in bright
colors that depicted a range of graphic scenes, including
the goddess Maat of balance and truth with outstretched
arms in the shape of feathered wings."

"Also shown were the four children of the falcon-
headed god Horus and the rituals and processes to mummify
the person, whom Dr. Hawass believes must have been
wealthy considering his burial location and the fine gold
used for the mask."

"'The artists who made this mummy more than 2,000
years ago demonstrated the brilliance of the ancient
Egyptians by using stunning colors and depicting his face
so graphically,' Dr. Hawass said."

"The mummy was buried within the necropolis of King
Teti, a funerary area containing dozens of burial
chambers, false doors that ancient Egyptians said the
souls of the dead would use to leave their tombs, and
temples." (See the Attleboro, Mass. Sun-Chronicle for May
4, 2005, "In Egypt, a grand and colorful find," page A1.)

NEW DINOSAURS COME OUT OF THE BEDROCK

"A fossil found in South Dakota comes from a never-
before-seen species of dinosaur--a horse-sized plant-eater
with spikes on its bony, flat head, scientists said."

"'When my colleagues saw a CAT scan of the new
fossil, they tore up their family tree diagrams and said,
'Back to the drawing board!'" paleontologist Robert Bakker
said, 'We never suspected such a creature existed.'"

"Discovery of the new member of the Pachycephalosaur
family changes the view of dinosaur history 66 million
years ago, showing that family trees were still evolving
even as the dinosaur world was about to go extinct, the
Children's Museum of Indianapolis said."

"The nearly complete pachycephalosaur skull was
donated to the museum by three amateur fossil hunters from
Iowa who found it in 2003 while exploring the Hell Creek
Formation in central South Dakota."

"The new species has a flat head with no bone dome.
The only other flat-headed pachycephalosaurs were found in
China and Mongolia, but all of these had short muzzles and
no long horns anywhere on the skull, the announcement
said."

Elsewhere, "paleontologists in Utah, with the help of
twin Temple University graduate students, say they have
found" a missing link between meat-eating and plant-eating
dinosaurs "in a new species of feathered dinosaur."

"The Falcarius utahensis, which stands for 'sickle
maker from Utah,' appeared about 125 million years ago.
It stood about 4.5 feet (1.1-meter) tall and had 4-inch
(10-centimeter) claws of a meat-eater but tiny plant-
eating teeth--a carnivore well on its way to becoming a
vegetarian."

"'It's the strangest-looking dinosaur you can
imagine,' said Matthew Cerrano, curator of dinosaurs at
the National Museum of Natural History, part of the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. 'It's as if
you sewed the dinosaur together from pieces from other
dinosaurs.'"

"Early dinosaurs appeared in what is now the United
States about 210 million years ago. Most were meat eaters
and stayed that way, but over time others became
herbivores. The Falcarius played an intermediate role,
giving rise to a group of bird-like plant-eaters called
therizinosaurs."

"'We don't know if it was an omnivore like us, eating
plants and meat, or just plants,' said Scott Sampson,
chief curator of the Utah Museum of Natural History and
coauthor of the study. 'But it tells us about the
shift.'"

"A new dinosaur species is discovered about a half-
dozen times each year, scientists said. But the Falcarius
is a major discovery because it fills in a piece of the
paleontology timeline scientists knew was out there, but
weren't sure where."

"The Falcarius excavation began about three years
ago, after a man who sold fossils on the black market
approached James Kirkland, Utah's state paleontologist and
lead author of the study."

"The seller said he'd found bones that might come
from a new species. He showed Kirkland the site, and
ended up spending five months in jail, Kirkland said."

"Since then, almost 1,700 bones have been found at
the two-acre dig site at Utah's Crystal Geyser Quarry, and
scientists have about 90 percent of Falcarius' bones."

"'If it wrapped its hands around your face, it could
go all the way around,' said Kirkland. 'It probably
couldn't eat you, but it could rip your face off.'"

"Celina and Marina Suarez, twin 23-year-old geology
students at Temple, went to the site last summer as part
of their graduate thesis. The two had been geology fans
ever since first grade in San Antonio (Texas), where they
spent recess digging at a limestone rock with pens and
sticks, hoping to get oyster fossils out."

"In Utah, Celina Suarez worked in the quarry, digging
out bones with piano wire and studying fractures and bite
marks on the fossils themselves. She believes that some
of the dinosaurs died elsewhere, and that water in a
streambed moved the bones to the quarry site."

"Meanwhile, her sister (Marina) was surveying the
landscape, trying to determine what sort of environment
existed 125 million years ago from rock samples. By
following a layer of rock along the landscape, she
discovered a second (fossil) site about a mile away."

"'There was a cliff and I saw two or three (dinosaur)
ribs just sticking out of the side of the cliff,' she
said."

"'I collected one of the bones and...when we went
back and started searching the surface, there were bones
everywhere.'"

"Excavation on the site is expected to begin next
summer, she said, and, although the duo will be working on
their doctorates at the University of Kansas, they hope to
return to Utah for the dig." (See the New York Post for
May 2, 2005, "New dinosaur discovered," page 11; the New
York Daily News for May 2, 2005, "S.D. fossil dino-mite!"
page 9; and the Philadelphia Inquirer for May 5, 2005,
"Fossil find links dino dining styles," pages A1 and A18.)

J.LO MULLS A CAREER IN POLITICS

"Jennifer Lopez is ready to take on the White House
after conquering Hollywood and the pop charts."

"'I'm a total powerhouse. If you ask me, I'd like to
become the first female (USA) president--that would be
really cool," J.Lo told Bravo," the German celebrity
magazine last week.

"And which issue would be at the top of President
Lopez's agenda?"

"'The first thing I would do is redecorate the White
House--it doesn't look very cozy.'"

On Tuesday, May 3, 2005, "Jennifer Lopez and husband
Marc Anthony entered the 'Late Show with David Letterman'
theatre...after police arrested a PETA protestor who tried
to charge at the couple."

For the past couple of weeks, the singer-actress has
been trailed by activists from People for Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA). Members have targeted her
for protests because she was photographed wearing fur.

"On Wednesday afternoon," May 4, 2005, J.Lo "took
questions, in person, from 100 KDWB-FM Radio listeners in
a conference room in St. Louis Park, Minn.," a suburb of
Minneapolis.

"Inquiring Minnesotans (and Wisconsinites) wanted to
know: Why doesn't J.Lo do a concert tour? What was it
like working with Jane Fonda in the new movie Monster-in-
Law? What do you look for in a back-up dancer?
(Shouldn't that question be directed at Cris Judd?--J.T.)
What city is your favorite place to shop? What sports did
you play in high school? What's the craziest thing a fan
has done?"

"'I'm looking at my security guard (for a reminder),'
said J.Lo, perched on a stool on a small stage and
perplexed about fan weirdness. 'I get lots of love.'"

"Before J.Lo entered, the fans were told by KDWB
officials to be polite. In other words, no questions about
ex-beau Ben Affleck or People for Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA) protesting her wearing fur, Clear Channel
Radio executive Mick Anselmo clarified for the Star-
Tribune before J.Lo was escorted into the room by three
bodyguards, her manager and her mom."

"The fans, most of whom appeared to be in their 20s
and 30s, seemed more impressed than starstruck."

"'She came off very well-spoken and intelligent and
nice, which is not what the media portrays,' said Xavier
Rice, 25, of Minneapolis, who asked her about being a
minority in show business. 'There were no bored-performer
answers.'"

"She was sharp and attentive, acknowledging some
questioners whom she had met earlier in the day. Her
answers were straightforward."

"KDWB (101.3 FM) had set up the promotional visit
with her record label even though Lopez is on tour--she
was in Chicago on Wednesday morning--to promote her new
movie. She spent less than four hours in the Twin Cities,
most of it at KDWB, where she also did an on-air
interview."

"After 20 minutes of interrogation by the fans, J.Lo
slipped on her tinted aviator glasses and made for her
private jet, headed to Atlanta for a charity affair with
(co-star Jane) Fonda."

"Lopez mentioned her upcoming endeavors, including
making a third video from her CD, shooting a dramatic
movie in June and launching a third fragrance in the
fall."

"'She was awesome!' said Taylor Caldwell, 11, of
Ellsworth, Wis. (No relation to the author of the same
name--J.T.), who had asked a question about fashion
design."

"Maria Isa Perez, 18, a St. Paul rapper, met J.Lo
earlier in the day. 'Man, it's an inspiration,' she
beamed, 'You don't get to see people like us Puerto Ricans
on TV. I've wanted to meet her since I was 8.'" (See the
Boston Herald for May 4, 2005, "Star Tracks," page 17; the
New York Post for May 4, 2005, page 11; and the
Minneapolis, Minn. Star-Tribune for May 5, 2005, "100 fans
are J.High with J.Lo," pages B1 and B4.)

"BIG FREEZE" JUST WON'T LET GO IN NORTHERN TEXAS

A "blue norther" turned the Texas panhandle back into
a winter wonderland last week, as five inches (12
centimeters) of snow fell on the city of Amarillo
(population 173,627).

Amazingly, temperatures were in the 80s on the
Fahrenheit scale just days earlier.

"An early May snowstorm left this Panhandle city with
nearly five inches of snow. The snowfall was a record for
May 2 in the city, the National Weather Service said."
Amarillo residents had to break out their snow boots,
parkas and long brushes to sweep the accumulated snow off
their cars before the morning commute.

However, "it wasn't the latest recorded snowfall in
the area. The latest fell on May 6 and 7, 1917, when the
city got 9.1 inches (22.7 centimeters), National Weather
Service meteorologist Roland Nunez said."

1898: ARKHAM UNVEILED

What reader of the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft
(1890-1937) has not felt a frisson of apprehension upon
encountering Arkham, "a very old town full of witch
legends?"

Witch-haunted Arkham, with its Seventeenth Century
gambrel homes clustered on the banks of the sleepy
Miskatonic River, has confounded both readers and
researchers for decades. Neither Arkham nor the
Miskatonic River appear on any map of Massachusetts. The
researchers suspect that it must be one of the 359
communities in the Commonwealth. But which one?

In The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, scholar S.T. Joshi
writes, "It is difficult to know how far 'west' of Arkham
the setting for this story ("The Colour Out of Space"--
J.T.) is, especially as it is not clear where exactly
Arkham itself is situated; but as characters are seen
walking back from the Nahum Gardner farmhouse to Arkham;
one assumes that the setting of the tale is not very far
west of the imaginary city. In earlier stories, Arkham
seems clearly to be an inland town in central
Massachusetts; in later stories, it is identified loosely
with the coastal town of Salem. Here an inland setting
seems more likely."

Lovecraft's descriptions of Arkham are themselves so
internally consistent that they seem to describe a very
real town. Here's a collection from HPL's various
stories:

The Colour Out of Space: "...he dares to do this
because his house is so near the open fields and the
travelled roads around Arkham. There was once an open
road over the hills and through the valleys, that ran
straight where the blasted heath is now...When I went into
the hills and vales to survey for the new reservoir, they
told me the place was evil, and because that is a very old
town full of witch legends I thought the evil must be
something which grandams had whispered to children through
centuries."

The Dreams in the Witch House: "He was in the
changeless, legend-haunted city of Arkham, with its
clustering gambrel roofs that sway and sag over attics
where witches hid from the King's men in the dark, olden
days of the Province. Nor was any spot in that city more
steeped in macabre memory than the gable room which
harboured him--for it was in this house and this room
which had likewise harboured old Keziah Mason, whose
flight from Salem Gaol at the last no one was ever to
explain. That was in 1692--the gaoler had gone mad and
babbled of a small, white-fanged furry thing which
scuttled out of Keziah's cell, and not even Cotton Mather
could explain the curves and angles smeared on the grey
stone walls with some red, sticky fluid...Gilman came from
Haverhill (Massachusetts), but it was only after he had
entered college in Arkham that he began to connect his
mathematics with the fantastic legends of elder magic."

The Thing on the Doorstep: "What lay behind our joint
love of shadows and marvels was, no doubt, the ancient,
mouldering and subtly fearsome town in which we lived--
witch-cursed, legend-haunted Arkham, whose huddled,
sagging gambrel roofs and crumbling Georgian balustrades
brood out the centuries beside the darkly muttering
Miskatonic."

The Shadow Out of Time: "I was born and reared in
Haverhill--at the old homestead in Boardman Street near
Golden Hill--and did not go to Arkham till I entered
Miskatonic University at the age of eighteen. That was in
1889...It is, of course, from others that I learned what
followed. I shewed no sign of consciousness for sixteen
and a half hours, though removed to my home at 27 Crane
Street and given the best of medical attention."

Huddled gambrel roofs...witch legends...a blasted
heath...Crane Street... Christchurch Cemetery...Meadow
Hill and the old Crowninshield House. In story after
story, the familiar landmarks of Arkham appear. The clues
are all there. But where exactly is Arkham?

I think I have the answer. It's in Plymouth County,
on Route 139, approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers)
north-northwest of Plymouth. Today it goes by the name of
Marshfield (population 4,246).

To understand why Lovecraft selected Marshfield,
Mass. as the site of "Arkham," you'd have to know
something about Seventeenth Century history, HPL's
childhood, his mother's family history and HPL's penchant
for in-jokes in his fiction.

Let me give you an example--the name Peters. It
appears in passing in two of Lovecraft's tales. Here we
go...

Pickman's Model: "No, I don't know what's become of
Pickman, and I don't like to guess. You might have
surmised I had some inside information when I dropped him-
-and that's why I don't want to think where he's gone.
Let the police find what they can--it won't be much,
judging from the fact that they don't know yet of the old
North End place he hired under the name of Peters."

The Terrible Old Man: "These folks say that on a
table in a bare room on the ground floor are many peculiar
bottles, in each a small piece of lead suspended pendulum-
wise from a string. And they say that the Terrible Old
Man talks to these bottles, addressing them by such names
as Jack, Scar-Face, Long Tom, Spanish Joe, Peters, and
that whenever he speaks to a bottle the little lead
pendulum within makes certain definite vibrations as if in
answer."

In using the name Peters, Lovecraft was paying homage
to his literary idol, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).
"Peters" is the name of the sailor who accompanies the
hero on his voyage to Antarctica in Poe's novel, The
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.

Like many other Lovecraft aficionados, for years I
hunted for "Arkham." Many times I got out the old
magnifying glass and surveyed topographic maps of the
coastline of Massachusetts, from Provincetown to Salisbury
Beach, looking for some clue to its location. I began to
suspect that "Arkham" may have been an archaic name for an
existing Massachusetts community. But, again, without a
starting point, I was hopelessly adrift.

Then, shortly after re-reading HPL's "The Rats in the
Walls" last winter, a name on the map caught my gaze--
Rexhame Beach, located on the shore 12 miles (20
kilometers) north of Plymouth and 3 miles (5 kilometers)
east of Marshfield. Instantly I recalled that the
fictional Exham Priory in Sussex was the locale of "The
Rats in the Walls." Rexhame...Exham...hmmmmm!

I used Google to pull up tons of information on
Rexhame Beach, all the while reflecting upon what fun HPL
would have had with the Internet. What a pity he died
fifty years before its appearance. But the "smoking gun"
still eluded me. "Arkham" was not an archaic name for
Rexhame Beach--at least as far as my sources on the World
Wide Web were concerned.

I realized that, to do this properly, I was going to
have to return to Massachusetts and do the on-site
research. And, in early April 2005, an opportunity to do
so rather suddenly and unexpectedly came my way.

First, a little about the name Marshfield. According
to Rev. Edward Turner, Marshfield was a "name which had
been gradually corrupted from Marysfield to Marifield,
from its being a district early dedicated to St. Mary, as
we find the ancient chapel at Nutley to have been in use
as a chantry, which is also mentioned in all the ancient
lists of Sussex (UK)."

(Editor's Comment: As a Fortean, I'd sure like to
know more about that apparition of the Virgin Mary in the
farm field near Nutley, Sussex back in the early Middle
Ages.)

According to the History of Plymouth County,
Massachusetts, the area was originally known as
Missaucatucket after the river that flowed through the
meadows. That's close enough to "Miskatonic" for me to
wonder if Lovecraft had come across the alternate spelling
of Missaucatucket during his delvings into the dusty tomes
of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century New England.

Missaucatucket was the home of a band of
Eniskeetompauwuag indigenous people (sometimes called the
Wampanoag Indians--J.T.), who were led by the sachem
(chief) Chickatabut. To give the Eniskee a free
translation, the chief's name means House Afire. It's
pretty easy to guess how he got that name. Chickatabut's
mother probably went into premature labor at the stress of
seeing the family's wigwam on fire.

Chickatabut was friendly with the Pilgrims settled at
Plymouth (original Eniskee name: Patuxet--J.T.). He
converted to Christianity and took the baptismal name of
Josias.

In 1630, a Pilgrim named Richard Green settled at the
mouth of the Missaucatucket. The river became known as
Green's River; the new settlement as Green's Harbour and
the meadowland as Green's Harbour Marsh.

Curiously, one of the first settlers there was George
Curwin, whose family name is familiar to any reader of
Lovecraft's novella The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
(Editor's Note: The bad guy in Ward is the ageless
sorcerer Joseph Curwen ... George's son?...who, according
to HPL, "in 1761, must have been almost a century old,"
i.e. born in 1661 in the old Plymouth Colony.)

In a deed witnessed by the sannompaug (warriors)
Wawayanna and Machippo, Chickatabut sold the
Missaucatucket country to the Pilgrims in the 1630s. On
March 2, 1640, the General Court (governing council) at
Plymouth voted "that Green's Harbour Marsh shall be a
Township and have all the privileges of a Township that
other towns have, and that it should be called by the name
of Rexhame but also Marshfield."

Rev. Turner informs us that hame or ham is an Anglo-
Saxon word meaning town. Of course, Rex is Latin for
king. So Rexhame can be rendered as King's Town or
Kingston (Or "Kingsport"--J.T.). Indeed, a couple of
decades later, the south section of Marshfield broke away
and established itself as the new town of Kingston, Mass.

One of the more famous early residents of Marshfield
was Rev. James Keith (1643-1727). He shares the name of
Fortean researcher/author Jim Keith (1950-1999), who is
best known for his Black Helicopters books. Rev. Keith
was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. He arrived in Marshfield
in 1662 and became the minister in nearby Bridgewater in
1664, where he married Susanna, the daughter of Deacon
Samuel Edson.

(Editor's Note: Today the western end of Bridgewater,
Mass., on Lake Nipenicket, is called Scotland. "The Nip"
or lake is said by some to be the nexus of the notorious
"Bridgewater Triangle.")

Interesting as it is, what does Marshfield history
have to do with HPL? Well, to answer that question, we
need to look at the history of Lovecraft's maternal
relatives--the Phillips family.

H.P. Lovecraft was born on August 20, 1890, the son
of Winfield Scott Lovecraft (1853-1898), a native of
Rochester, N.Y., and Sarah Susan Phillips Lovecraft (1857-
1921), nickname "Susie," at the home of his maternal
grandfather, Whipple Van Buren Phillips (1833-1904), at
194 Angell Street in Providence, Rhode Island.

(Editor's Note: Since that time, the homes on Angell
Street have been renumbered, and the old Phillips mansion
is now 454 Angell Street.)

"In April 1893, father (Winfield S. Lovecraft) has a
mental breakdown and is committed to Butler Hospital, an
asylum in Providence." The elder Lovecraft, who had been
a sales representative for the Gorham Silverware Co. of
Providence, R.I., "went away" when HPL was less than three
years old, and Susie moved into her father's house on
Angell Street. Thereafter, Whipple Van Buren Phillips, a
most notorious New England occultist, became HPL's
"father" and was probably the most formative influence on
the young author's life.

Phillips, a wealthy businessman and land developer,
had been born in Moosup Valley in western Rhode Island,
had travelled extensively in the USA--and in Italy and
Egypt--and spent each summer at his beach home just east
of Marshfield, Mass.

The roots of the Phillips family went deep into
Marshfield history. For instance, Joseph Phillips, a
soldier in the town militia, was killed in 1676, during
the war between the European colonists and the
Eniskeetompauwaug, who were led by the sachem Metacomet
and his brother, Wamsutta (better known to the white
people of Plymouth Colony as "King Philip and Alexander."-
-J.T.).

The family played a key role in town politics just
before the War of the American Revolution (1775-1783). A
seat on Marshfield's Board of Selectmen (town council) was
held from 1768 to 1770 by Elisha Phillips, from 1771 to
1773 by Nathaniel Phillips, who also served as moderator
at the annual town meeting, and from 1775 to 1777 by Isaac
Phillips.

One can easily visualize young Lovecraft, in the
company of his mother's father, wandering down Crane
Street in Marshfield, gaping at the Seventeenth Century
homes with their huddled gambrel roofs and decaying
Georgian balustrades, while Grandfather Phillips held
forth on the family history and the curious legends of the
area.

Oh, yes, just like fictional "Arkham," Marshfield has
its witch lore. There is Pagan Hill, located just south
of Rocky Nook in what is now Kingston, Mass. What strange
fires blazed and even stranger rituals flourished atop
this modest peak in the Pilgrim days.

Remember "Arkham" and its "blasted heath?" S.T.
Joshi believes this to be a reference to lines in both
MacBeth and Paradise Lost. Perhaps so. But old
Marshfield has its own "blasted heath" at the Spirit
Pasture.

The History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts informs
us: "The swampy pasture, located between the junction of
the old and new roads to Plympton, and Rocky Nook, has for
an unknown period borne the name given above (Spirit
Pasture--J.T.). In the olden times, when the belief in
ghosts, witches and hobgoblins really produced an effect
upon the minds of men, this location was credited with
being the abode of such beings, and many aged persons have
given the testimony of the courage it required to pass the
place in the night-time, for any such unusual sound, even
the rustling of a leaf, could be enough to send a thrill
of terror through the faint-hearted."

"It is related that a certain judge, who was on his
way to attend a session of the court at Plymouth was
determined, in that he did not reach Kingston until after
dark and while passing the dreaded place heard a most
dismal sound, accompanied by intervals by the clanking of
a chain."

"At first a sudden fear came upon him, but he was
determined to know whence came the noise that had startled
him, so he called at the farm of Colonel (John) Grey.
(Meaning this incident took place circa 1785--J.T.), who
lived just opposite, and told him what he had heard."

"The colonel took his lantern and walked with the
judge into the pasture in the direction where the sounds
proceeded, all the while feeling doubtful what discoveries
they would make in the lonely spot where spirits were
believed to dwell."

However, as things turned out, "an old horse had been
fitted with a chain about his leg. It had broken away
from its confinement and (had) fallen into a large hole,
where rock had been taken from the ground. When the judge
and the colonel reached the place, the 'spiritual
manifestation' was explained."

You might say that "Arkham" was born in 1898, the
summer H.P. Lovecraft turned eight years old. During this
summer, which he spent at the house near Rexhame Beach
with his mother and beloved grandfather, he first
discovered the works of Edgar Allan Poe.

Science fiction author Lyon Sprague de Camp once
pointed out that people write about what makes them happy.
"Arkham" is all about what made HPL happy: carefree
childhood days on the Massachusetts shore, Seventeenth
Century architecture, New England folklore, the company of
his mother and grandfather, and reading Edgar Allan Poe.

Only one mystery remains...where did HPL come up with
the pseudonym of "Arkham" for his "witch-haunted" locale?
I think I've found the template for "Arkham," but I was
unable to find the "smoking gun," the name itself.

Well, that's it for this week. "Roundup on the Road"
has come to an end, with your editor once again back in
his customary northern Minnesota haunts. I'd like to take
this opportunity to thank our Massachusetts
correspondents, Mary Lou Jones-Drown and her husband, Karl
Drown, for letting me use the computer at their farm to
put together the previous three issues. And the other
correspondents who managed to catch up with me while I was
on the road. My only regrets are that I didn't quite make
it to Windham, Connecticut as planned and that I was
unable to take advantage of Bruce Chesley's kind offer to
take me on a tour of the historic Witchcraft sites in
Salem. Sorry, Bruce, but family matters kept me in the
Taunton area. Hopefully, we can try again on my next trip
back East.

In the meantime, we'll be back again next week with
more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the
planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home-
-UFO Roundup." See you next time.

UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2005 by Masinaigan Productions, all
rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO
Roundup on their Web sites or in news groups provided that
they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list
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